We are building a platform that stakeholders can trust

Every year trillions of dollars’ worth of trade is happening through the internet. Since the late 90s we have experienced four eras in digital trade.  The first era started in late 90’s, the yellow page era as it called, where companies started listing their details on information sites, the second era started with the growth of platforms where buying and selling started online. In the third era, platforms became more service-oriented ecosystems that included marketing, financing and more support to facilitate trade and here is where small businesses started selling worldwide. Now we are moving into the fourth era where every part of trade will be completely digitally transformed, complex government processes will be digitalized for one stop import export processing, AI, IOT, Big Data will fuel innovation to facilitate decision making.

Ease of management and monitoring, cost effective nature and consumer involvement is making digital trade the future of the trading systems. One estimate shows that Cross border digital trade increased 45 folds over 2005-2014. According to Frost & Sullivan digital trade will account for over 27% of overall trade turnover by the year 2020 and B2B online retail market will grow twice the size of B2C online retail market. Needless to say, the ongoing Covid19 pandemic and the acceleration of the digital trade point out the importance of the robust existence of infrastructures required to facilitate digital trade. It involves digital specific trade policies, reducing digital divide, building trust and establishing necessary ecosystems.

At Merchant Bay we are working to build a platform which the world buying community can trust to source their products from Bangladesh. We believe among many other elements; trust is the most important element in the digital trade. And to build a trustworthy digital trade ecosystem, cooperation and collaboration from all the stakeholders is required.

By building databases, establishing platforms for suppliers and promoting them to the world stage and facilitating buyer-supplier communication and trade deals, we are addressing multiple digital trade issues simultaneously. However, without local and global policies in place, making progress towards cross border digital trade will be challenging.

The good thing is governments around the world and organizations like WTO are working tirelessly to build a global policy framework that will ensure everyone’s interest is preserved.